Uyghur Language Affix Lasted A Comparative Study

Uyghur language is an agglutinative language, its main method of word-formation is adding word-forming suffixes to roots and stems. Word-forming suffixes are important parts of morphology in Uyghur language. Therefore, priority must be given to the study and research on the word-forming suffixes in Uygur Morphology. Word-forming suffixes are mainly divided into two types: the nominal suffixes and the verbal suffixes. The thesis deals chiefly with the nominal suffixes of the Uyghur language.So far, the research field of Turkic studies has made remarkable achievements. Internationally, diachronic and synchronic studies of Turkic languages are fruitful. But, domestically, the research field of Uyghur language is still basically on synchronic studies up to now. Word-forming suffixes in Uyghur language are very rich, however, few scholars conduct a research from the diachronic perspective. The thesis mainly conducts a research from the diachronic perspective on forms and usage of nominal suffixes in five periods: old Turkic period, early ancient Uyghur period, late ancient Uyghur period, Chagatay period and modern Uyghur period. This thesis is divided into four chapters altogether in addition to introduction, summary and appendix.In the introduction, it introduces the purpose and significance of the topic, the research on word-formation of Uyghur language, research methods, selected documents, short titles for historical documents and references studied in this thesis, marks used in this thesis, and discusses historical stages in Uygur language. In the summary, it concludes 13 argumentations based on the four chapters. In the appendix, it gives a diachronic comparison table of 120 word-forming suffixes studied in this thesis.The first chapter introduces categories of morphemes in Uyghur language. In this chapter, firstly, the author introduces the research on morphemes in Uyghur language and makes analysis and draw conclusion about categories of morphemes by previous scholar. Then, it reclassifies morphemes in Uyghur language, describes characteristics of each category of morpheme and relationship among them, focuses on features of the additional morphemes and relationship among them. Finally it discusses stems in Uyghur language and lists 10 kinds formation of stems.The second chapter is about the research on diachronic comparison of denominal nominal suffixes. This chapter and following two chapters are important parts of this thesis. The thesis divides nominal suffixes into three kinds: denominal nominal suffixes, deverbal nominal suffixes and loan suffixes. This chapter describes 47 denominal nominal suffixes, and other 4 suffixes.The third chapter is about the research on diachronic comparison of deverbal nominal suffixes. This chapter describes 37 deverbal nominal suffixes in Uyghur language.The forth chapter is about the research on diachronic comparison of loan suffixes. This chapter describes commonly used 36 loan suffixes from different languages into Uyghur language in disparate historical periods of Uyghur language up to now. The chapter also discusses the other five loan components which pointed out in the common Uyghur grammar books.In this thesis, additional morphemes categorized into word-forming suffixes, form-forming suffixes and form-word-forming suffixes. It also considered that "dichotomy" of additional morphemes in traditional grammar is not the case in Uyghur language. Word-forming suffixes aren't added to after the form-forming suffixes, but few word-forming suffixes (+sXz,+ 1XG,+ (?)an,+(?)(?),+GUr,+ mAn etc., mainly the first two) can be added to sometimes in Uyghur language. However, word-forming suffixes could be added to before and after form-word-forming suffixes.The author studied representative documents and relative materials in the five periods of Uyghur language, selects 120 nominal suffixes (84 original nominal suffixes and 36 loan suffixes) in total in Uyghur language, and depicts their forms, usage and source in various periods.According to the distribution of 120 nominal suffixes in varous periods, some suffixes used in all historical periods, some are employed in certain part of the period, others are used in some period in Uyghur language. In the 84 original nominal suffixes, there are 25 suffixes which are used from the period of old Turkic to the modern Uyghur language, 16 used in four periods, 9 in three periods, 17 in two periods, and 17 only in one period of Uyghur language. Loan suffixes first are used in the time of early ancient Uyghur period. There are 4 loan suffixes which are used in four periods, 8 used in three periods, 20 in two periods, and 4 only in one period in the total number of 36 loan suffixes.The numbers of nominal suffixes in the documents in various periods are different. In the numbers of 84 original nominal suffixes in Uyghur language, there are 43 suffixes used in the documents of the Old Turkic period and 25 of them continue to appear in the modern Uyghur language, 73 ones used in the documents of the early ancient Uyghur period and 37 of them keep using in the modern Uyghur language, 52 ones used in the documents of the late ancient Uyghur period and 38 of them continue to employ in the modern Uyghur language, 47 ones used in the documents of Chagatay, 53 ones used in the modern Uyghur language. In the numbers of 36 loan suffixes, there are 4 loan suffixes used in the documents of the early ancient Uyghur period, 12 ones in the documents of the late ancient Uyghur period, 32 ones in the documents of Chagatay, 36 ones in the modern Uyghur language. Therefore, it is concluded that the modern Uyghur language is directly developed from the Old Turkic and the ancient Uyghur language. It is also seen that, the number of original Uyghur nominal suffixes began to decrease from the period of the late ancient Uyghur language; while the number of loan suffixes started to increase from the period of the late ancient Uyghur language.